JPH11317813A - Device for equalizing inter-skill service level - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the 'rare' skill of agent from being impossible to treat calling which requires the skill by previously executing assignment so as to treat calling which requires the 'rare' skill. SOLUTION: An agent assigner 150 decides what kind of skill its usage possible agents 102-104 own by referring to information in an agent profile where the agents are stored. When the agent is provided with a 'rare' function without calling in a queue and another agent to be used against the 'rare' skill does not exist, the agent is kept to be secured without executing the service of calling from a normal queue. When other agents provided with the 'rare' skill are possible to use, one of them is released for executing the service of calling from the queue.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to automatic call distribution.
distribution (ACD) system, and also referred to as a call center or telemarketing system.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION An ACD system provides a call processing agent (either an incoming call or an outgoing call) to an appropriate call processing agent that is available according to certain predetermined criteria. Distribute. Many existing systems, such as Lucent Technologies D
In the efinity ^(R) ACD system, the criterion for handling a call from the moment the ACD system notices the call to the time the call is connected to an agent is called call vectoring. Can be specified by the customer through the function (ie its ACD
Programmable by the system operator). In current ACD systems, usually AC
When the controller of the D system detects that one agent is available to process the call, the controller identifies all of the agent's predefined call processing skills ( Deliver the longest waiting call of the highest priority matching that agent's skill to the agent (usually in some priority order) to the agent. In general, the only condition that results in a call not being delivered to an available agent is when no calls are waiting to be processed.

In many call centers, agents are members of multiple skills (ie, multiple agents are divided for different agent skills). Some of these skills (for example, general sales or inquiry skills) have many agent members, while other skills (for example, specialized sales or inquiry skills, (For example, skills in non-native languages) have only a small number of agent members. In these situations, even when the scarce skill is properly assisted, when a call arrives that requires the scarce skill, all agents of the scarce skill will call the ordinary skill. And, on average, invoking the scarce skill will have to wait a long time before the scarce skill agent becomes available. In addition, the same level of service across all skills is desirable. This is usually the average speed of response
(Average Speed of Answer: ASA) or as a percentage of calls answered within a specified time interval (80% within 20 seconds is an industry standard).

However, in such call centers, callers for relatively large, general skills experience a higher level of quality than callers for a relatively small number of rare skills. This is due to the number of agents in the skill, all other things being equal. The more agents in a skill, the higher the level of service provided. This means that when a call comes in for a skill that currently has no agents available, the more agents working in that skill, the more agents will be able to handle the call required by that skill. When you have to wait before you can use it, the time is short. In the extreme case of a very rare skill, the number of agents handling the skill is very small, and the latency of the call is long enough for the caller to abandon the call before the call is answered. Could be.

[0005] One way to equalize the level of service provided for a small number of skills is to add an agent with only that specialized skill, or from an agent with a larger skill. Moving over is one way to over-staff these skills. Both solutions are costly and inefficient. Also, additional training resources are needed.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to a method of solving these and other problems and disadvantages of the prior art. In accordance with the present invention, a call handler (eg, a call center agent) having a plurality of skills that can now handle a call is a call that requires one of the skills of the call handler. Assigned to handle the call, so that skills considered to be "rare" skills for that agent are not deprived of the last agent available to handle calls requiring that skill Can be Here, the term "call" broadly refers to any type of communication. In particular, in response to a call handler having both "rare" and "ordinary" skills becoming available to handle calls, the call handler needs ordinary skills. By assigning calls to be handled
It is determined whether the only available call handler with the scarce skill will reject calls requiring the scarce skill. In that case, the call handler is assigned to handle calls requiring the scarce skill, even when calls requiring the scarce skill are not entering to be handled by the call handler, And the call handler is not assigned to handle calls requiring the ordinary skill, even when calls requiring the ordinary skill are entering to be handled by the call handler. Thus, the call handler is reserved for calls that require the call handler's unusual skills (eg, "rare" skills and optionally any "normal" skills), and the call handler is the call handler. Calls that require normal skills are not handled when waiting to be processed.

Before the call handler is assigned, whether the purpose of the service is appropriate for calls requiring ordinary skill, and only if the purpose of the service is appropriate, ordinary skill is required. It is preferable to determine whether or not the call handler has been assigned for processing the call.
Further, if it is determined that the above assignments do not reject calls requiring the scarce skill from the last available call handler that can handle those calls, One of the call handlers is selected, and the selected call handler is not assigned to handle calls requiring the normal skills of the selected call handler, and the unselected call handler is Assigned to handle calls requiring the ordinary skills of an unselected call handler. In this way, the number of reserved call handlers is minimized and the best (ie, selected) call handler is reserved.

[0008] These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of one embodiment of the invention, taken in conjunction with the following drawings.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 shows an example of a call center. As before, this call center is
It includes a plurality of telephone lines and / or trunks 100 selectively interconnected with a plurality of agent positions 102-104 via a D-system 101. Each agent position 102-104 includes a voice and data terminal 105 for use by the corresponding agent 106-108 in processing the call. The terminal 105 is connected to the ACD system 101 by a voice and data transmission medium 109. Also,
The ACD system 101 includes a conventional Basic Call Management System (BCMS), which collects call records and call center statistics for use in call center management and in generating call center reports. Call management system (CM
S) The system 110 is connected to the ACD system 101. CMS and BCMS are hereinafter collectively referred to as CMS 110.

The ACD system 101 is, for example, Lucent
A Technologies Definity ^(R) Private Branch Exchange (PBX) based ACD system is shown. It is a stored program controlled type system, as before, external communication links, communication switching fabrics, service circuits (eg, tone generators, announcement circuits, etc.), members for storing programs and data. And an interface to a processor (ie, a computer) for controlling the interface and fabric and for executing a stored control program to provide an automatic call distribution function. The data stored in the ACD system 101 includes a set of call queues 120 and a set of agent queues 130. Each call queue 121 to 129 is associated with each agent
Like the queues 131 to 139, they correspond to different agent skills. As before, the calls are prioritized, and fall into a separate one of the call queues 120 according to their priorities, or correspond to one skill, each corresponding to a different priority. It is in a different one of the call queues. Similarly, each agent's skills are prioritized according to the agent's expertise in that skill, and the agents can be placed in a separate one of the agent queues 130 in order of the level of expertise, or they can be assigned a skill level And is in a different one of a plurality of agent queues, each corresponding to a different level of expertise. The control program in the ACD system 101 includes a call vector 140.
Calls entering the call center on line or trunk 100 are assigned to different call queues 121-129 by call vector 140 based on the agent skills each of which requires unique processing. Agent 10 available to handle calls
6-108 are assigned to agent queues 131-139 based on the skills owned by those agents. One agent may have a plurality of skills, in which case it may be assigned to a plurality of agent queues 131 to 139 at the same time. In addition, agents may have different levels of expertise (for example,
Skill levels 1-16 in one known system
And in another known system, only the primary (P)
Skills and secondary (S) skills only), and thus may be assigned to different agent queues 131-139 at different levels of specialization. The vectoring of the call, DEFINITY of ^(R) "Generic 3 Call Vectoring / Expert Agent Selection of the communication system (EAS) Guide (CommunicationSystem Generic
3 Call Vectoring / Expert Agent Selection (EAS) Guid
e) ", AT & T Publication No. 555-230-520 (No. 3)
Issue, November 1993). No. 5,206,90 for skills-based ACD
3, which is described in more detail.

In accordance with the present invention, the program executing on ACD system 101 includes an agent assigner 150. Agent Assigner 15
0 is stored either in main memory or in peripheral memory (eg, disk, CD ROM, etc.) or some other computer readable medium of ACD system 101. The agent assigner 150 provides a level of service provided for scarce (less needed and therefore fewer agents deployed) skills and a level of service provided for ordinary skills The assignment between available agents and agent skill queues 131-139 is made in a manner that tends to equalize.

The agent assigner 150 of the embodiment
The functions performed by are shown in FIGS. Agent Assigner 1 when one of Agents 102-104 can handle the call
50 is performed in step 200. In response, the agent assigner 150 determines at step 202 what skills the available agent possesses by referencing the information in the agent's stored agent profile. . Next, the agent assigner 150 determines at step 204 which of these skills corresponds to a non-empty call queue in the call queue 120. Next, the agent assigner 150 checks the stored skill profile to determine if all non-empty call queue skills corresponding to that agent's skill are administratively designated as "normal" skills. It is determined in step 206 whether or not it is. If so, the agent selector 150 assigns the agent to the agent queue 130 at step 212 using one of the known prior art methods. For example, the agent selector 150 may select a queue 13 corresponding to any of the agent's skills.
The agent can be assigned to each of 1 to 139. Next, Agent Assigner 1
50 ends its execution in step 226.

[0013] If all of the agent's skills corresponding to the non-empty call queue were specified in step 206 as being "normal" skills, the agent assigner 150 checks the skill profile at step 208 and calls the call queue. It is determined in step 208 whether all of the agent's skills corresponding to are compatible with their respective service objectives. For example, each skill has its own average response speed (ASA) target, which is administratively assigned to the agent, and the agent assigner 150 assigns the skill's ASA target to the skill. With the actual measured ASA. If none of the agents' skills match their respective service objectives, the agent assigner 150 proceeds to step 212 and performs conventional agent assignment. Agent assigner 1 if all of the agent's skills were appropriate for their service purpose
50 checks the stored skill profile at step 210 to determine if any of the agent's skills are administratively designated as "rare skills". If there is no such skill, the agent assigner 150 proceeds to step 212 again. If some of the agent's skills were designated as "rare skills", the agent assigner 150 checks the agent queues 131-139 corresponding to the agent's rare skills at step 214 and Determine if any of the agent queues are empty.

For each of the agent queues 131 to 139 determined to be empty corresponding to the scarce skill of the agent, the agent assigner 15
0 places the available agent in an empty agent queue in step 216. For each agent queue 131-139 determined to be non-empty, corresponding to the rare function of that agent,
Agent assigner 150 places the available agent in a non-empty agent queue at step 218. In either case, this would secure the agent for calls requiring the agent's unusual skills, and service the waiting calls requiring the agent's ordinary skills. Make it unavailable. However, following step 218, the agent assigner 150 releases at step 220 which of the multi-skill agents in the rare skill agent queue to service calls requiring ordinary skills. Decide what to do. For example, the agent assigner 150 knows which of the queued agents is least occupied or has the most play and releases that agent. The release is in step 222
This is done by placing the released agent in an agent queue 131-139 corresponding to the ordinary skill of the released agent.
If the system optionally includes a third category of skills administratively designated as "normal" skills,
Following step 216 or 226, the agent
The selector 150 places the available agent (as determined in step 214) into the agent queue corresponding to the agent's normal skill at step 224. Step 216
Or, if there was no "normal" skill category following 222, or if there was a "normal" skill category following step 224, the agent assignment is complete, and the agent assigner steps its execution. The process ends at 226.

From the above, the agent assigner 150
Implements the following agent assignment logic:

If the agent has a "rare" feature with no calls in the queue, and no other agent is available for the "rare" skill, and the agent is in the queue Do not service calls from normal queues if you have a "normal" skill with a call in it and that "normal" skill meets its purpose for the waiting time , And leave that agent secured. If another agent with that "rare" skill is available, release one of them to service the call from the other queue.

The selection of an agent from the agent queue 130 and the selection of a call from the call queue 120 and the assignment of a call to the agent are:
This is then done by any conventional method.

Of course, various changes and modifications to the above-described embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, the invention is not limited to use with ACD systems and agents, but can be used in any situation where communication is handled by handler staff.
Such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention and without diminishing its advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the following claims.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a call center including one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional flow diagram of one embodiment of the call center agent assignor of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a functional flow diagram of one embodiment of the call center agent assignor of FIG. 1;

Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Robin H. Foster United States 07739 New Jersey, Liter Silver, Standish Road 82 (72) Inventor Roy A. Jensen United States 80030 Westminster, West 80th Avenue, Colorado 149 2760 (72) Inventor Joylee E. Kohler United States 80234 Colorado, North Glen, Crea Lane 1585 (72) Inventor Eugenpie. Matthews United States 60010 Illinois, Burlington, Rainbow 21920

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A method of allocating a call handler to handle a call, wherein a call handler having both a rare function and a different common skill is available to handle the call. Responding to the call by assigning the call handler to handle calls requiring the ordinary skill, thereby requiring the scarce skill of only one available call handler having the scarce skill Processing by the call handler in response to determining whether the call would be rejected and responding to the determination that the assignment would reject the call requiring the scarce skill Even if there is no call that requires the scarce skill, Allocating the call handler to handle the call in need; and assigning the call handler to the normal, even when a call requiring ordinary skill is in process to be handled by the call handler. Refraining from assigning the skill in question to processing a call that requires it. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining comprises determining whether a service purpose is met for said call requiring said normal skill. The method wherein the withholding step is further conditioned by a determination that the service objective is met. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said rare function is responsive to a determination that said assignment does not result in rejection of said call requiring said rare skill. Selecting one of the available call handlers, and selecting the selected call handler even when there are no calls requiring the scarce skill to be processed by the selected call handler. Allocating the call requiring the rare skill to be processed, even when the call requiring the ordinary skill is waiting to be processed by the call handler. Assigning the selected one call handler to handle calls requiring the ordinary skill Steps and, further comprising the steps of assigning to the processing of all non-selected call handler to other calls the have a rare skill refrain from. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises: determining whether a call requiring the scarce skill is waiting to be processed; Determining if another invocation handler having is available to process the call requiring the scarce skill; and if the call requiring the ordinary skill is waiting for processing Determining whether a service objective is appropriate for the call requiring the ordinary skill, wherein the step of assigning the call requiring the scarce skill That no other call handler with the scarce skill is available, A method wherein a call requiring a call is conditioned by a determination that the call is waiting and that the service purpose is met. 5. The method of claim 1 for identifying calls that correspond to different skills and are waiting to be processed by a call handler having said corresponding skills. In an environment including a plurality of call queues, each of which corresponds to the above, the step of determining is that a call handler having both at least one rare skill and at least one different ordinary skill processes the call. Determining whether all non-empty call queues corresponding to the agent's skill correspond to at least one ordinary skill of the agent in response to the agent becoming available A non-empty call queue corresponding to at least one ordinary skill Determining whether the service purpose is met for a call requiring a kill, wherein the steps of assigning and withholding the assignment comprise all non-empty call queues corresponding to the skills of the agent. Corresponds to at least one ordinary skill of the agent, and the service purpose is for a call requiring a skill corresponding to each non-empty call queue corresponding to the at least one ordinary skill of the agent. Responsive to the determination of a match, assigning the call handler to handle calls from at least one call queue corresponding to at least one scarce skill of the call handler. And less of the agent Refraining from assigning said call handler to handle calls from said at least one call queue in response to one common skill. 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising, in response to the determining, further assigning the call handler to handle a call from a call queue corresponding to the agent's normal skill. Further comprising, the method wherein the normal skill is a skill other than the at least one rare skill and the at least two common skills. 7. The method of claim 5, wherein said assigning and withholding assignments comprise: from said at least one respective call queue corresponding to at least one scarce skill of said call handler. Determining whether another call handler is available to handle the call of the call, processing calls from each of the at least one call queue corresponding to at least one rare skill of the call handler. Responsive to a determination that another call handler for the call handler is not available, the call handler to process a call from the at least one call queue corresponding to at least one rare skill of the call handler. Allocating; at least one of said agents Refraining from assigning the call handler to handle calls from the at least one call queue corresponding to a common skill; and the call handler corresponding to at least one rare skill of the call handler. Selecting the call handler and one of the other call handlers in response to a determination that another call handler is available to process one call from at least one call queue; Assigning the selected call handler to handle calls from the at least one call queue corresponding to at least one rare skill of the selected call handler; Said corresponding to at least one ordinary skill Refraining from assigning the selected call handler to handle calls from at least one call queue; and the call corresponding to any of the skills of the unselected call handler. Assigning the unselected call handler to handle calls from a queue. 8. The method according to claim 1, 2 or 3.
Or an apparatus for performing the method of claim 4 or claim 5 or claim 6 or claim 7.